KIA
by Mr.Snickers
Summary: My account of how Mass Effect 2 might play out based on the teaser trailer, Commander Shepard is a soldier with a spacer/war hero background and default male name and appearance....oh and please note that i am NOT speculating the Commander's death
1. Chapter 1: The Illusive Man

Chapter One: The Illusive Man

"Commander?", came the voice of Alliance Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau over the Normandy's comm system.

"what is it now Joker?", replied Staff Commander John Shepard (clearly annoyed by the sudden, and frequent, interruptions that came with his job).

"well I'm sorry to interrupt things with you and your girlfriend but you know I wouldn't have to if I didn't think it was important" Joker replied sarcastically.

John knew he was right, that Joker wouldn't interrupt if it wasn't important (which it almost always is on the Normandy) and that Shepard was with Ashley, his fiancée and the love of his life, and as far as the regs go…well they apparently are no Alliance regs for fraternization between a Council Spectre and an Alliance marine…so therefore their relationship is perfectly legal.

"Yeah your right Joker, I've just been a bit edgy since the recent events that took place, but anyways what do you got?" came Shepard's delayed response.

"An urgent transmission from an unknown source, I tried to triangulate the signal but it's too heavily encrypted, whoever it is they sure don't want us to find out where they are AND there quite good at it too…..I'll patch it through to the comm room" answered Joker.

"alright Joker I'll be in there in a minute". It actually took a few minutes for the commander to get into comm room (but not because of the great distance he had to walk).

When the commander finally entered the comm room the first thing he noticed that was out of the ordinary was the holographic projection of a three-headed dog, he immediately realized who (or more so what) had sent the transmission…..Cerberus.

The hologram spoke first, "Well hello John it's nice of you to finally join me…I would think the First Human Spectre would make it a priority to not keep people like me waiting for so long".

Commander Shepard stood even straighter at the mention of his first name before his reply, "first off you can refer to me as either Commander or Commander Shepard and second…..who the hell are you?".

"Me?…..it doesn't matter who I am……not yet anyways…..it will one day though…..one day I will assure Humanity's rightful spot as the most powerful species in the Galaxy and all will know my name!!!……but not yet…..not yet…" the voice trails off before beginning again "and as for what I should call you….I'll call you whatever the hell I want because it's my choice….and you can't do anything about that" came the overzealous voice of the mysterious voice over the comm.

"Ok…..what should I call you then?" came the voice of a now more settled Commander Shepard.

"Why yes…..you can call me…the Illusive Man"

"Ok….so why did you contact me?"

"Ah yes, back to business, well I assume you know from which organization I am from?" questioned the Illusive Man.

"Cerberus…..you make that blatantly obvious"

"Mmm I'm impressed….it appears you do know your Greek mythology…..and you are correct I am the leader of Cerberus…or more accurately what it has become" spoke the proud but disillusioned voice of the Illusive Man.

"You mean a rogue band of mad scientists and terrorists?" accosted Commander Shepard.

"Sigh….I'd explain my motives to you but you'll never understand" replied the Illusive Man.

"Oh no….please do" came Shepard's quick response and the Illusive Man answered reluctantly.

"If humanity is to survive, sacrifices must be made for the greater good. The Alliance doesn't understand this…..and neither do you……goodbye John".

"Oh and next time…..don't keep me waiting so long" and then the comm channel went dead.


	2. Chapter 2: Taking Action

Chapter 2: Taking Action

Commander Shepard stood in contemplative silence for a few more moments before hastily leaving the comm room in such a manner that it caused Private Fredricks and Private Reeves to exchange puzzled looks at one another.

Soon after the Commander left the comm room he found himself jogging swiftly down the stairs to the second deck that housed the infirmary, scullery, sleep pods, and his own quarter's.

Once he reach the elevator he punched the call button and waited for the elevator to arrive, and for a brief moment while the door was slowly opening, wondered whether the slowest elevator in Citadel Space was a turian or human design.

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator the Commander was looking for Garrus

"Garrus"

"Yes Commander?", replied a now very concerned turian

"Remember those Cerberus files we extracted from their database back on Nepheron?"

"Why of course Commander….what about them?"

"I need you to decrypt them ASAP, understood?"

"Affirmative Commander, I'm on it"

"Good…..and when your done send the decrypted files to my computer and notify me ok?

"Of course Commander….is that all?"

"For now…..Joker?

"Yo…what's up?", answered the most comical man in the Alliance

"I need to speak with Councilor Anderson ASAP"

"Gotcha….I'll patch him through to the comm room once the call gets through"

"Alright thanks Joker"

Moments later in the Normandy's comm room a hologram of the newly appointed Councilmen appears.

"What can I do for you Shepard?" said Councilor Anderson

"I need you to tell me the whole story of what happened on Sidon and Camala eighteen years ago" stated Commander Shepard

"May I ask why that information is so important?" inquired Anderson

"It may have something to do with Admiral Kahoku's murder"

"Commander the Alliance already has men working on that, don't you have bigger priorities at the moment?"

"It's not just that Captain….Cerberus is out of control ….and I'm not going to let them get away with murdering Alliance brass or conduct anymore science experiment's on colonist's"

"I understand that Commander but it's being taken care of"

"Captain….you know as well as I do that nobody in the Alliance will bring Cerberus operatives to justice as quickly and efficiently as I will……AND I know information about Cerberus that even the Shadow Broker doesn't"

"Please……for Admiral Kahoku" Shepard pleaded

"Alright….what do you need to know?" replied Anderson sensing the Commanders determination and knowing that he's right.

"Everything" answered Shepard

A half hour later….

"And that's the whole story behind my mission on Sidon and Camala and the reason why my candidacy for the Spectres was thrown out……but I still don't see the connection between those events and Cerberus" concluded Anderson.

"I haven't quite put two and two together yet either but I know there's a connection somewhere" Shepard said.

"Well I trust your instincts Commander but if you don't find anything conclusive soon then I can't let you continue chasing ghosts Commander…Is that understood?"

"Yes sir" replied Shepard

"Now is there anything else you need Commander?" asked Anderson

John had to think for a moment before responding

"Armistan Banes….is there anything else you can tell me about him?"

"Sigh…Armistan Banes…sometimes referred to as General by his underlings even though he was only a non-com" replied Anderson wondering where Shepard is going with this.

"He used to work for Elanus Risk Control before he enlisted with the Alliance" Anderson continued.

"Is he really dead?" questioned Shepard

"As far as I know he is, a couple of Kahoku's men found him dead on an unidentified derelict freighter a few months back" Anderson replied.

"But now that I think about it there is a possibility that the man found on the freighter wasn't Banes" Councilor Anderson remarked, realizing that Shepard might be on to something.

"How's that?" Shepard inquired

"Well for starters the body never made it off the ship for an autopsy and the servicemen that found it didn't bother to collect any DNA or fingerprints from the crime scene, much less any other evidence" Anderson informed.

"So why did the Alliance list him a KIA instead of MIA? Shepard asked.

"Apparently the Alliance wanted to close the door on whatever project he was working on" Anderson implied.

"Or the Alliance doesn't want anybody knowing that he's still alive……which also might explain why the crew that supposedly found Banes' body went missing just days later" suggested Shepard.

"It's possible….all I know is that whatever Banes was working on is classified above top secret" said Councilor Anderson.

"Yeah, if only I had that kind of clearance" Commander Shepard remarked.

"Actually you do…..courtesy of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel….or did you forget that Commander?" Anderson smirked.

"Actually I think I did…..I've been feeling more like a C-Sec officer then a Spectre lately" joked Shepard and they both laughed.

"Alright Commander I'm gonna let you go….it appears we both have a lot of work to do" said Anderson, still chuckling.

"Good luck Shepard"

End of chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3: No more chasing ghosts

Chapter 3: No more chasing ghosts

After his 45 minute chat with the Captain, Shepard found himself back in his room sitting in front of his desk reading what little intel the Alliance database had on Banes from his computer. The only things that weren't classified were his height and weight, which if accurate meant Banes was a pretty big guy at a height of 6 foot 2 and weighing in at just over 280 pounds, causing Shepard to smirk just a bit at the thought of getting into a fist fight with him.

The thought of it brought Shepard back to his high school boxing days, and one fight in particular. It was a month before graduation and he had already enlisted with the Alliance and would be finishing basic that summer. The fight pitted Shepard against a much larger (and much more aggressive) opponent from a rival school named Frank Corzone.

Shepard could hear the ref announcing the start of the match.

"In this corner we have the reigning high school heavyweight champ standing at a height of 6 foot 3 inches tall and tipping the scales at just over 260 pounds Frank Corzone!!!" the ref belched.

Shepard knew he didn't show it, he couldn't show it, but he was nervous and he grew even more nervous as the ref began to introduce him.

"And in this corner, standing 6 foot 0 inches tall and weighing a modest 186 pounds…John Shepard!!!" the ref announced with gusto. And the two combatants met in the middle of the ring and tapped gloves.

Then the bell rang and before John even knew it he had to take a step back to avoid a right handed haymaker to his face that made him get a grip and calm his nerves.

The next punch was a left hook that connected briefly but didn't do much damage as Shepard had moved with the punch and connected with a counter left uppercut to his opponents ribs.

Then Shepard found himself on the defensive again, ducking and dodging powerful blows left and right. Soon though Shepard had run out of ring and found himself on the ropes, about to get pulverized, when he ducked past another potentially fight stopping punch to get back into the middle of the ring.

Once he was back in the middle of the ring where he could use his speed and quickness John went on the offensive, orchestrating brilliant punch combos and keeping his adversary at bay with quick, hard jabs.

After another two stiff jabs that snapped his opponents head back Shepard had to duck down and to his right to avoid another hard right hook from Corzone.

As he did that he stepped forward with his left leg and (putting all his weight into the punch) delivered a hard straight right into Corzone's midsection that not only forced him to the mat, gasping for air, but also broke ribs. The bell rang.

Shepard had won by knockout at the end of the first round and had barely been hit by a single punch from Corzone.

"Shepard…I've finished decrypting the data on Cerberus and you should have it any moment now" came Garrus's cheerful voice over the com, bringing the Commander back to the present day.

"Alright Garrus I'll look at it in a minute…good job" Shepard said with a yawn.

After that the Commander went back to browsing through Banes' profile, but first had to type in his Alliance service number (5923-AC-2826) and give voice confirmation to his status as a Council Spectre.

As soon as the computer confirmed that he was in fact himself, dozens of top secret projects, programs, and operations of all sorts popped up on screen.

Three in particular caught Shepard's eye, two (project: Deimos and project: Phobos) because of their obvious significance in Greek mythology, and one (operation: Breadcrumb) because of the recent date of the op (approximately 4 months earlier).

Shepard opened the first assignment, codenamed Deimos.

Project: DEIMOS

Classification: Top Secret

Key Operatives: Armistan Banes, Dr. Wayne

Date: 3-13-2177

Objective: Release a trio of thresher maws (provided by Heyuan Genomics) on the

Alliance Colony of Akuze to observe and study both the reaction of the colony and Marine detachment stationed there and analyze the possibilities of utilizing thresher maws to ambush enemy patrols on hostile alien worlds.

Secondary objective: Capture any survivors for analysis and study by Dr. Wayne's team on Ontarom in the Newton system.

Shepard made a mental note to have Dr. Wayne's trail postponed until the end of his investigation, because he knew this was all the evidence needed for a conviction but he couldn't release this information just yet.

Shepard also got a feeling that taking down Cerberus meant untangling a web of secret scandals and cover ups and going toe to toe with some of Humanity's biggest corporations, he just hoped there wouldn't be too much collateral.

Shepard took a quick second more to fully digest what he just read before opening the next assignment brief, wondering what startling new info could be obtained from it.

Shepard opened the file,

Project: PHOBOS

Classification: Top Secret

Key Operatives: Armistan Banes, Paul Grayson

Date: 9-22-2170

Objective: Stage an element zero "accident" with an Eldfell-Ashland Energy freighter in correspondence with Paul Grayson in order to observe the effects of exposure to element zero on the human population of Yandoa in hopes of furthering research into the field of human biotics.

p.s if all goes according to plan there's a possibility I'll have you and Grayson stage more of these "accidents" on other human colonies.

Shepard shook his head and smirked at the fact that Kaiden's suspicions about those "accidents" were right on the money, but did so half-heartedly because of the thought of his old friend and the fact that the "accidents" weren't accidents at all but staged by Cerberus, an organization that's supposedly has humanities best interest in mind and whose leader is human.

But he apparently has no humanity in him, Shepard thought to himself in regards to the Illusive Man.

Shepard shook his head once more, this time with a frown on his face, before opening the last file.

Operation: BREADCRUMB

Classification: Top Secret

Operative: Armistan Banes

Date: 7-15-2183

Objective: Eliminate Admiral Kahoku by any means necessary but be careful as to the location you choose to dispose of him at, I don't want anybody to find his body or any other evidence of his demise that would point back to you or Cerberus.

p.s it is likely that Kahoku will try to contact the Shadow Broker (Cerberus) for more information on the whereabouts of various research sites and other key Cerberus locations…if he does I will give him the location of one of our bases on Binthu so you can do what is required in a secure location.

Shepard just stared at the screen for a moment making sure that he had read everything correctly because it was hard to believe that not only did he find the identity of Kahoku's assassin but he also found out who the Shadow Broker is.

Then the screen flashed and started to erase all the files Shepard had opened, just like the database on Nepheron.

But unlike Nepheron it was Shepard this time who managed to download the files to an OSD (not Garrus)

As soon as the files where downloaded the entire alliance data file on Banes was erased, leaving Shepard to stare at his home screensaver (a picture of Earth side by side with the Citadel) to remind him of what he was fighting for.

It was but a moment later that Shepard heard Joker's voice over the intercom.

"Commander?" asked Joker.

"What is it Joker?" replied Shepard.

"Just got a message from the Citadel…apparently somebody wants you to meet them in front of C-Sec Headquarters" answered Joker.

"The message doesn't say who?" Shepard inquired.

"Nope…but if I had to guess id say it's from somebody inside C-Sec" said Joker

"Alright…I'll be sure to meet with'em then" Shepard said.

"Oh and the Council called wanting an update on your current assignment" Joker said manner-factly

"Tell them I want face to face meeting's from now on until my current assignment is complete" Shepard said.

"And I want to be on the Citadel as soon as possible" added Shepard.

"Aye aye Captain" came Joker's reply even though Shepard was not a Captain.

Shepard rubbed his temples before opening the decrypted Cerberus files that Garrus had sent him.

What Shepard found out confirmed what he already knew but also added several other Cerberus ops including the assassination of Claude Menneau on route to Shanxi in order for Charles Saracino (trailing in the polls by three points) to win the Terra Firma election by default.

Shepard also found out that Claude Menneau had two bodyguards (Keo and a man named Pel) and a pilot by the name of Paul Grayson, and it just so happens that Grayson and Pel are known Cerberus operatives.

But not only that but Shepard also discovered that Inez Simmons (the former leader of the Terra Firma Party) was forced to resign her position in 2173 because she was taking kickbacks from Nashan Stellar Dynamics, but what nobody knew was that she was a Cerberus operative and was using those kickbacks to fund various Cerberus activities.

Shepard also found out that the Illusive Man had plans on infiltrating the Alliance's Ascension Project….but Shepard had no way of confirming if he had succeeded.

But what surprised Shepard the most was that among the long list of Cerberus operatives there were many high ranking alliance officers, and among the names one stood out amongst the rest…..

Admiral Hackett


End file.
